first game I truly loved? probably Dragon Warrior III or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Hell, maybe even Pokémon Blue. One of those old RPGs that I sunk a billion hours into, made me care about everything that happened. Nothing quite like that experience, especially as an adult.

Back in high school I made a gundam zero endless Walt’s kit, damn like 15 years ago. Some of the joints were loose, and I don’t recall the colors popping as well as the one you have built. Mine needed paint badly but that was beyond my skill level at the time... wonder if manufacturing has changed so these kits look…

For the record, 1/100 scale translates well to the 6" scale most American action figures use (and that you were expecting, which is why 1/144 seemed so small). I had the same reaction after doing my first and now I stick to the 1/100s.

Another note for aspiring Gunpla enthusiasts! Kits have multiple grades associated with it. This Aile Strike Gundam in this article has an “HG” grade which is the easiest 1:144 kits you can buy. They are lower cost and easy to build. A step up from this is the RG grade which is also 1:144 scale but has more complex…

If you enjoyed your build on that, you may also enjoy Kotobukiya’s line of Zoids. They’re around the same level of difficulty as a MG Gundam, and are built in basically same fashion (Runners, Instructions in Japanese but with Runner Numeral and Number, etc.). Beautiful kits.

The 1/144 scale issue is based off the suit’s actual size, HGs from the early UC series (RX-78-2, Zeta) are significantly bigger than later UC series (Unicorn, F91, and no Victory still doesn’t exist) because of in universe improvements in engine size.

My first one was actually the pre-HG models for Gundam Wing. They were far simpler and less detailed, but they were only $8 back in the day. Now I’ve built almost 100 of the things, though I’ve sadly fallen off after Build Fighters Try.